While the additive and synergistic
effects of multiple toxic exposures are well documented in the
medical literature, Government agencies do not take such into account
in their regulation of toxic chemicals.

Mercury and lead
are extremely neurotoxic and cytotoxic, but their combined
synergistic effect is much worse. A dose of mercury sufficient to
kill 1% of tested rats, when combined with a dose of lead sufficient
to kill less than 1% of rats, resulted in killing 100 % of rats
tested(1). Thus with combined exposure the safe dose is 1/100 as much
as the dose individually. Studies in Australia have confirmed similar
relationships hold for people, and other studies document such
effects(7). This means most people in the U.S. are getting dangerous
levels of these metals, enough to cause some neurologic effects.
Consuming two toxic metals in combination, such as lead and cadmium,
or lead and mercury, can have a synergistic effect, meaning one metal
has the ability to enhance the toxicity of another metal in amounts
smaller than what it would usually take that metal to be
toxic.(1,7,11)

Laboratory
animals are often used to test the toxicity of a substance. In the
case of testing lead and mercury together, rats were used. Rats were
dosed with an amount of mercury that would cause death in 1% of the
rat population within about 5 days. This is called lethal dose 1% or
LD1. The laboratory rats were also tested with a LD1 dose of lead.
What is frightening is that when mercury and lead LD1 dosages were
combined, there was a 100% mortality rate; all of the rats died,
demonstrating that mercury and lead together are highly synergistic
in their toxic effects.(1)

The level of mercury thimerosal in vaccines has been shown to be
highly neurotoxic, but the effect was found to be much larger due to
the synergistic effect with aluminum, which is also in most
vaccines(4,8). Aluminum is in all vaccines and has been found to have
significant adverse effects, independently of mercury(8,10). Studies
using U.S. CDC data have found thimerosal from vaccines to be major
factors in autism and ADHD(5,9,10), along with prenatal rhogam shots
which contain high levels of mercury thimerosal and are given to some
RH negative women during pregnancy.

Dietrich Klighardt
has found that copper, zinc, and lead are synergistic with mercury,
increasing the adverse effects. Other factors found to be synergistic
with mercury toxicity are cavitation toxins, stress, sleep
deprivation, aspartame, vaccinations, metal dental work, and wheat
(6).

Similar
is true for mercury’s synergistic effect with other toxic
metals like arsenic, and with other toxic chemicals like PCBs(2) or
with smoking which greatly increased measured kidney damage
effects(12). Mercury in combination with PCBs through diet can also
have a synergistic effect(2). It is rather disturbing to realize
that some populations of Canadian, Alaskan, and Great Lakes children
are routinely ingesting chronic doses of lead, mercury, and PCBs
together in their diet.

Another
study found that insulin resistance increased with serum dioxins and
blood mercurylevels(26). Moreover, participants
with higher serum dioxins or blood mercury were at a significantly
increasing risk for insulin resistance, and simultaneous exposure
to dioxins and mercury heightens the risk of insulin resistance more
than does individual exposure.

A report by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS) (Oct 2003) acknowledged that fluoride has been observed to
have synergistic effects on the toxicity of aluminum, complexing with
the mineral in the water. They acknowledge that most drinking water
is high in fluoride/aluminum complexes, which enhance neurotoxicity.
Other studies have shown that cooking with fluoridated water leaches
the aluminum out of the aluminum cooking pots, with different amounts
being released depending on the foods being cooked, whereas cooking
with non-fluoridated water resulted in no release of aluminum from
the pans. Leaching of up to 600 ppm occurred with prolonged boiling!

Autism
has increased in the U.S. more than 10 fold in the last decade (10).
According to the Florida Dept. of Education, the numbers increased
from approx. 300 to over 4000 during this time period. There have
likewise been large increases in the number of children with ADHD and
other developmental conditions, according to the National Academy of
Sciences and other sources. A major factor in this appears to be the
large increase in vaccinations given to infants and other toxic metal
exposures(9-11).

There was an increase of over 45% in learning disabilities in
Pennsylvania between 1990 and 2000(3). But the study showed that the
county highest on the Chemical Pollution Scorecard, Montgomery, had
an increase more than double that of the rest of the state.
Montgomery County had an increase in ADHD of 32.7% and an increase in
autism of 310%.

III.
Synergistic Effects of Organochlorine Chemicals and Other Estrogenic
Chemicals

While
the additive and synergistic effects of multiple toxic exposures are
well

documentedin the medical literature, Government
agencies do not take such into account in their regulation of toxic
chemicals.

Studies
have found that the combined synergistic effects of such estrogenic
organochlorine chemicals such as endosulfan, dieldrin, toxaphene, and
chlordane are much stronger than would be expected(19). Combinations
of endosulfan, dieldrin, toxaphene, and chlordane produced estrogenic
effects 500 to 1000 times as much as their individual effects(19).
Likewise, synergistic effects were found beet the neurotoxic
pesticide ingredient Deet and other types of pesticides and
chemicals(25). Similar synergistic estrogenic
effects were observed when small levels of estrogenic pesticides were
combined with 2 types of PCBs(21).
T.M. Gross of the Univ. of Florida indicates PCBs appear to have
synergistic effects with those of other estrogenic chemicals like
dioxin, DDT, mercury, etc.(18)Similar
findings have been seen in dioxin or organochlorine chemically
contaminated fish and wildlife of the Great Lakes region, Mississippi
River, and other areas throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in
dioxin or pesticide contaminated Florida rivers
(14,15,16,12,13b,23). Animal studies have confirmed that
PCBs have similar feminizing and sexual mutation effects, and that
there are synergistic effects between different organochlorine
congeners that produce effects at lower levels than for one toxic
chemical alone(17,18)

While
some of the common phthalates of weakly estrogenic, they have also
been found to have more adverse synergistic effects when combined
with other chemicals found in the environment and food chain.
For example, DEHP has been found to have synergistic effects with
trichloroethylene and heptachlor for prenatal loss of fetus and
maternal mortality in rats(20).

Mixtures
of low levels of organochlorine chemicals were found to cause a
significantly greater proliferation of tumor cells than when exposed
individually. This could also explain why the
distribution of toxic-waste sites in the U.S. closely parallels the
sites of highest breast cancer mortality(24) and increased birth
defects.

In 2002
Kortenkamp and his colleagues tested a mix of eight xenoestrogens on
yeast. These included chemicals used as plasticisers, sunscreen
ingredients and others found in cooling and insulating fluids. In the
mixture, each was below the level that toxicologists call the
"no-observedeffect concentration" --the level that should
be safe. Sure enough, the combination triggered unusual effects in
the yeast. Kortenkamp and his colleagues dubbed the mixture effect
"something from nothing". (22) Kortenkamp and his
colleagues found that if the doses of all eight chemicals were simply
added together, after adjusting for the varying potencies, this new
cumulative dose could be used to predict the effect --a principle
called "dose addition". "This result was to be
expected, but it had never been shown with endocrine disrupters until
our work," says Kortenkamp.

Since then the effect has been shown
with other species, too. Kortenkamp and his colleagues now report
that mixtures of xenoestrogens feminised males to varying degrees
even though the individual components should have been harmless. In
July this year the team showed that a blend of anti-androgens
--chemicals that block the effect of male sex hormones --can work in
the same way. They exposed pregnant rats to two common fungicides,
vinclozolin and procymidone, and the prostate cancer drug flutamide,
and then screened the male offspring for reproductive deformities. At
higher doses, each of these three chemicals wreaks havoc with sex
hormones, and they all do it via the same mechanism: they disrupt
male development by blocking androgen receptors and so prevent
natural hormones from binding. The researchers found that even when
the chemicals were used in doses that had no effect when given
individually to pregnant rats, a mixture of them disrupted the sexual
development of male fetuses.

Earl
Gray, an ecotoxicologist at the reproductive toxicology division of
the US Environmental Protection Agency's Health and Environmental
Effects Research Laboratory (HEERL) in Research Triangle, North
Carolina, and his team also tried exposing pregnant rats to
vinclozolin and procymidone. When they exposed the animals to the
compounds individually, they too saw no effect. But when they
combined the two, half of the males were born with hypospadia. Gray
calls this phenomenon "the new math --zero plus zero equals
something".

Gray
then tried the same experiment with phthalates --the ubiquitous
compounds that are used to soften plastics and thicken lotions, and
are found in everything from shampoo to vinyl flooring and flexible
medical tubing. They also disrupt male development, in this case by
stopping the fetus from making testosterone. The mix of two
phthalates that Gray used caused many of the same effects on male rat
fetuses as a mixture of vinclozolin and procymidone. (22)

It
makes sense that chemicals targeting the same pathway would have an
additive effect. But what about mixtures of chemicals that work via
different mechanisms? Surely the individual doses of such chemicals
would not be additive in the same way.

In
2004, Gray and his team put this to the test by mixing procymidone
with a phthalate at levels that, on their own, would produce no
effect. Because the chemicals work via different routes, he expected
that the combination wouldn't have any effect either. But they did.
Then the team mixed seven compounds --with four independent routes of
action --each at a level that did not produce an effect. "We
expected nothing to happen, but when we give all [the compounds]
together, all the animals are malformed," Gray says. "We
disrupted the androgen receptor signalling pathway by several
different mechanisms. It seems the tissue can't tell the difference
and is responding in an additive fashion."

Shanna
Swan is doing something similar. In a study published in 2005 she
showed that boys whose mothers had had higher levels of five
phthalates while their babies were in the womb had a shorter distance
between the anus and genitals --a marker of feminising activity. They
also had higher rates of cryptorchidism compared to sons of mothers
with lower phthalate levels. Swan devised a cumulative score to
reflect exposure levels to all five phthalates and found that score
was "very predictive of ano-genital distance". (22)

3.
Pennsylvania Dept. of Education, 2003, Study of learning disability
incidence in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 1990 and 2000; &
""Polluting Our Future: Chemical Emissions in the U.S. that
Affect Child Development and Learning,"" by Physicians For
Social Responsibility, at (202) 898-0150, psrnatl@psr.org

The original
evidence cited for the synergistic effects of lead and mercury (and
cadmium) comes from a 1978 paper by Schubert et al published
in Michigan:"...the
administration of an essentially no-response level (LD1) of a mercury
salt together with 1/20 of the LD1 of a lead salt killed all of the
animals [rats]."

Dr
Michael Godfrey and dentist Noel Campbell write:"...a
lethal dose (LD1 [enough to kill 1% of the rats]) was combined with a
1/20th LD1 of lead, resulting in a LD 100 [100% death rate] in the
test animals."We have recently found that considerable
amounts of lead may be excreted with the mercury following DMPS
provocation. Our preliminary investigations appear to indicate that a
synergistic effect could be identified by multiplying the lead and
mercury concentrations together, after adjusting to IG of urine
creatinine. We have termed this the Campbell-Godfrey factor (C-G
factor). Chronic-ally affected patients may have high levels of
either metal or a high total C-G factor. Those with the highest C-G
factor appear to be the worst affected, thus indicating that the
synergism in animals is replicated in man."

The
questions raised are: is it safe for lead poisoned people to have
mercury fillings? Should CLAS advise parents of lead-poisoned kids
never to allow these fillings in their kid’’s mouths?
Should CLAS advise lead-poisoned people who are planning to conceive
for instance, to have their amalgam fillings replaced, along with
DMSA chelation therapy and nutrient replenishment therapy, well in
advance of trying to conceive? Is it acceptable for anyone to be
exposed to lead and mercury (and cadmium) as they are in mining and
smelting communities? Why aren’’t the DMPS provocation
test, DMSA chelation therapy or amalgam removal procedures claimable
under Medicare? When will Australia phase out amalgams?

************************

Consuming
two toxic metals in combination, such as lead and cadmium, or lead
and mercury, can have a synergistic effect, meaning one metal has the
ability to enhance the toxicity of another metal in amounts smaller
than what it would usually take that metal to be toxic.(5) Mercury in
combination with PCBs through diet can also have a synergistic
effect(6).

Laboratory
animals are often used to test the toxicity of a substance. In the
case of testing lead and mercury together, rats were used. Rats were
dosed with an amount of mercury that would cause death in 1% of the
rat population within about 5 days. This is called lethal dose 1% or
LD1. The laboratory rats were also tested with a LD1 dose of lead.
What is frightening is that when mercury and lead LD1 dosages were
combined, there was a 100% mortality rate; all of the rats died,
demonstrating that mercury and lead together are highly synergistic
in their toxic effects.(5)

It
is rather disturbing to realize that some populations of Canadian,
Alaskan, and Great Lakes children are routinely ingesting chronic
doses of lead, mercury, and PCBs together in their diet.

Pennsylvania
Dept. of Education, Study of learning disability incidence in
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, 2003; & ““Polluting
Our Future: Chemical Emissions in the U.S. that Affect Child
Development and Learning,”” by Physicians For Social
Responsibility, at (202) 898-0150, psrnatl@psr.org

There was an increase of over 45% in learning disabilities in
Pennsylvania between 1990 and 2000 (3). But a study showed that
the county highest on the Chemical Pollution Scorecard had an
increase more than double that of the rest of the state.
Montgomery County had an increase in ADHD of 32.7% and an increase in
autism of 310%.

Learning
Disabilities have Risen Threefold in Montgomery County in comparison
to the population - from 1990 to 2000

1990
to 2000

Montgomery
County Intermediate Unit Total Enrollment

+
32.7 %

Montgomery
County - Learning Impairment Services

+
32.7 %

Least
Polluted Counties - Learning Impairment Services

+
1 %

1990
to 2000- ADD/ADHD and Autism

Montgomery
County ADD/ADHD

+
32.7 %

Montgomery
County Autism

+
310 %

••
Montgomery County is one of the most chemically polluted counties
in the nation, according to Score Card’’s pollution
indicator.

•• ADD and AUTISM are NeurodevelopmentalDisorders.

•• Heavily emitted neurological
and developmental toxins in Montgomery County could be Major
Factors in Increased Learning Disabilities, ADD, and Autism.

Vinyl Chloride, Mercury, Methyl Isobuatyl Ketone, TCE, and
Lead are all neurological toxins. The Pottstown Landfill is a source
of ALL these neurological toxins. They travel downwind into many
parts of Montgomery County. Researchers had difficulty determining
exact amounts emitted by the Pottstown Landfill, since landfills are
not required to report to EPA’’s Toxic Release Inventory.

•• Occidental Chemical in Pottstown has emitted
over 1½½ Million Pounds of Vinyl Chloride into
Montgomery County’’s air since 1988 and has ranked 1st
and 2nd in the nation in Vinyl
Chloride emissions.

Montgomery
County Children Have Doubled Increases In Learning
DisabilitiesCompared To Lesser Polluter Counties and
the State - 1990 to 2000

Montgomery
County is one of the most POLLUTED Counties in the Nation, according
to Score Card’’s pollution indicator.Ironically,
all Pottstown Landfill’’s toxic emissions are not
includedby Score Card.

Children
everywhere are experiencing unacceptable increases in learning
disabilities which suggest a serious problem. These disabilities are
clearly the result of complex interactions among environmental,
social, and genetic factors that impact children during vulnerable
periods of development.

There is new understanding about the
effects of environmental chemicals on these processes. Developmental
disabilities, including attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), autism, and related neurodevelopmental diseases affect
millions of American children. The consequences of these disorders
are often tragic. The family, social and economic costs are immense,
and the disabilities can be life-long. Studies of animals and
children show subtle changes in the concentrations of normally
occurring chemicals such as hormones –– as well as the
presence of toxic agents like lead, mercury, or PCB’’s ––
can produce profound and permanent changes in the developing nervous
system. These can lead to decrements in mental performance.

Developmental processes are extremely vulnerable to
environmental insult. For detailed information refer to ““In
Harm’’s Way - Toxic Threats to Child Development,””
by Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility and
““Polluting Our Future: Chemical Emissions in the U.S.
that Affect Child Development and Learning,”” by
Physicians For Social Responsibility, at (202) 898-0150,
psrnatl@psr.org

Studies demonstrate that a variety of
chemicals commonly encountered in industry can contribute to
developmental, learning, and behavioral disabilities. Developmental
neurotoxicants are chemicals that are toxic to the developing brain.
They include the metals lead, mercury, cadmium, and manganese, and
pesticides such as organophosphates. PCB’’s, and DIOXINS
bioaccumulate and are directly toxic to cells and neurotransmitters.

With widespread use and disposal of all these chemicals and
metals which affect learning disabilities, it is easy to understand
why learning disabilities increased in PA by 46.6%, and even in the
least polluted PA counties by 40.2% from 1990 to 2000. But, how do we
explain such shocking Montgomery County increases in learning
disabilities (more than twice the state and comparison area) 94%,
ADHD (32.7%), and autism at 310%? This represents an epidemic.

ACE believes Montgomery County children face a chemical
plague. A major factor is toxic air releases. The kinds of
neurotoxins which cause learning disabilities, ADHD, and autism are
emitted into the air 7 days a week from the Pottstown Landfill and
Occidental Chemical. Both emit unknown amounts of dioxin. The
Pottstown Landfill emits synergistic and additive combinations of
nearly every neurotoxin. These can become far more toxic as they
synergize. Mercury is just one example. Occidental Chemical in
Pottstown has emitted 1½½ million pounds of vinyl
chloride since 1988. These emissions travel downwind through many
parts of Montgomery County.
**********************************************

A testing procedure is described for the assessment of the
toxicological response (e.g., acute toxicity or mutagenicity) of any
combination and number of chemical, physical, and biological agents,
with no more effort for a particular combination than for a single
agent. The method provides a simple, sensitive, and quantitative
index of synergism, antagonism, and additivity, and it has been
demonstrated experimentally in rats by determining the acute
lethality of combinations of cadmium, mercury, and lead salts. In a
combination of two metal salts, the dose of one metal of the pair was
fixed at or near the no-effect level while the dose of the second
metal was increased until the entire dose-response curve was
obtained. To evaluate interactions of the three metals, the previous
pair of metals were kept fixed at their combined extrapolated LD1
level, and the third metal was increased. The statistical treatment
of the data employed a computer program that did not involve probit
transformations, but rather the approximate linear relationship
between the fractional response and the logarithm of the dose. A
particular combination could be synergistic, antagonistic, or
additive, depending on the relative doses employed. Generally, a
combination was synergistic when the most toxic member was present at
or near its LD1 dose in the presence of the much less toxic member;
the same combination was protective when the least toxic member was
present at or near its LD1 dose. The results clarify apparently
contradictory reports regarding the biological effects of metal
combinations. The application of the testing procedure to
combinations of mutagens is described, and an example is cited
involving, for a particular bacterial mutagen, a combination of
N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine with ethylmethanesulfonate.

From
1996 to 1997, J. Curtis Pendergrass, PhD, did some experiments in
my research laboratory at the University of Kentucky that
confirmed the toxicity of thimerosal in vaccines. The results
appeared on our website (www.altcorp.com), where they attracted
the attention of some parents of autistic children.

These
parents informed me that increased mandatory vaccination of
infants was, in their opinion, the cause of an apparent epidemic
of autism. This was the first time I had heard of this situation.
The rationale for considering vaccinations as the cause of their
children's problems seemed sensible and worth an investigation. I
would like to state here that I am a very strong supporter of the
national vaccine program, and that nothing in this article should
be construed to imply that parents should avoid getting their
children vaccinated. But I do recommend avoiding vaccines that
contain thimerosal.

My
laboratory was well experienced in mercury research. We had
earlier demonstrated that mercury, when exposed to normal human
brain tissue homogenates, is capable of causing many of the same
biochemical aberrancies found in Alzheimer's diseased (AD)
brains.1-4 Also, rats exposed to mercury vapor show the same major
protein aberrancy as AD brains. Specifically, the rapid
inactivation of important brain enzymes occurs following the
addition of low levels of mercury or exposure to mercury vapor,
and these same enzymes are significantly inhibited in AD brains.5
Also, mercury exposure to neurons in culture by other researchers,
at a concentration lower than that found in many human brains, has
now been shown to produce three of the widely accepted
pathological diagnostic hallmarks of AD.6,7

Therefore,
we hypothesized that exposure to mercury is involved in the
etiology of AD, or at least would exacerbate this disease. We also
proposed that other heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium, which
act synergistically to enhance the toxicity of mercury, could be
involved. Additionally, we proposed that exposure to
organic-mercury compounds like methyl mercury from fish and ethyl
mercury from thimerosal would also enhance the toxicity of any
exposure to mercury. The early work of Dr. Pendergrass confirmed
this with pure thimerosal, with some interesting additional
observations. First, in human brain samples the exposure to
mercury dramatically reduced the viability of a major brain
protein called tubulin, but had little if any effect on another
major protein, actin. Both tubulin and actin are critically
important for the growth of dendrites or maintenance of axon
structures of neurons. Exposing neurons to mercury rapidly results
in the stripping of tubulin from the axon structure, leaving bare
neurofibrils that form the tangles that are the diagnostic
hallmark of AD. Thimerosal, like mercury, also rapidly reduces the
viability of tubulin; in addition, however, it abolishes the
viability of actin. This likely represents a major difference in
the mechanism of mercury versus organic-mercury (more neurotoxic)
toxicity. However, both mercury and organic-mercury inhibit
tubulin viability and would work in concert to damage neurons of
the central nervous system.

We
therefore decided to investigate vaccines with and without
thimerosal present as a preservative, using human brain tissues.
To date the data have been very consistent: the toxicity of the
vaccines is primarily dependent on the presence of thimerosal and,
in my opinion, would be classified as severely toxic to numerous
brain proteins. In the spring of 2001 these data were presented to
the Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review Committee,
which concluded its analysis by suggesting that thimerosal
involvement in autism was a plausible hypothesis. Since then I
have formed a collaboration with one of my colleagues, Mark
Lovell, PhD, who uses cultured neurons in some of his experiments.
Using his cultured neuron system, we studied the extent of
neurotoxicity of pure thimerosal and of vaccines with and without
thimerosal present. The experiments were done as follows: Neurons
were grown in culture for 24 hours. Then pure thimerosal or
vaccines were added to test cultures. The death of neurons was
observed for the next 24 hours and compared to the death of
neurons in the absence of toxicant.

The
results were almost identical to the results observed with brain
tissues: vaccines with thimerosal present were much more toxic
than thimerosal-free vaccines. Pure thimerosal was toxic at the
low nanomolar level--an extremely low concentration, about 10,000
times less than the thimerosal concentration found in most
vaccines. These results leave little doubt about thimerosal being
the toxic agent in the vaccines. However, many vaccines contain
aluminum ions that have neurotoxic properties, and aluminum was
once considered a factor in AD etiology. So we tested aluminum in
the same system.

Aluminum
is not nearly as toxic to neurons in culture as is thimerosal.
However, we had earlier observed with mercury that the presence of
other metals would enhance toxicity. Experiments were done to
determine if aluminum would increase the toxicity of very low
levels of thimerosal. The results were unequivocal: the presence
of aluminum dramatically increased the rate of neuronal death
caused by thimerosal. Therefore, the aluminum and thimerosal
combination found in vaccines produces a toxic mixture that cannot
be compared to situations where thimerosal alone is the toxic
exposure.

The
enhanced toxicity of thimerosal created by the addition of
aluminum represents a problem with all forms of mercury toxicity.
Synergism of toxic metals is well known. A slightly toxic solution
of lead, mixed with a slightly toxic solution of mercury, results
in a very toxic mixture. This is similar to the enhanced adverse
reactivity to thimerosal found in optomological solutions, when
subjects were prescribed to take the antibiotic tetracycline. For
some reason, tetracycline increased the ocular toxic reaction to
thimerosal. We have done some experiments to determine if certain
antibiotics could also increase thimerosal-induced neuronal death
in the neuron culture system. Our preliminary results indicate
that this is the case, especially with tetracycline and
ampicillin. Further research is needed in this area for accurate
evaluation. But our results support previous reports and indicate
how important it is to check out the effects of other compounds on
the exacerbation of mercury and organic-mercury compound toxicity.

One
of the conundrums of autism is why there is an approximate ratio
of four boys to every girl who gets this disease. Dr. Lovell
therefore tested the possibility that this could be hormone
related. The latest results were quite marked in their effects.
Neurons that were pre-incubated with estrogen demonstrated
substantial protection against thimerosal-induced neuron death. In
contrast, the addition of testosterone caused a very large
increase in thimerosal-induced neuron death. A low nanomolar level
of thimerosal that gave less than 5 percent neuron death in three
hours could be increased to 100 percent cell death by the addition
of one micromolar level of testosterone. Testosterone alone at
this level also showed less than 5 percent cell death. The
opposing effects of estrogen and testosterone may explain the
gender-based four-to-one ratio. Most important, the tremendous
enhancement of thimerosal toxicity by testosterone points out the
impact of synergistic effects when addressing mercury toxicity.

Those
involved in promoting the use of mercury in medicine and dentistry
favor the old adage "Dose makes the toxin," and pick a
supposedly safe level based on testing young, healthy mammals that
have been exposed to mercury compounds. The synergistic
enhancement of thimerosal toxicity by testosterone and aluminum
demonstrates that no one can pick a concentration of mercury or
organic-mercury and say with confidence, "This is a safe dose
for human infants"--at least not with our current level of
knowledge.

MMR
(measles-mumps-rubella) has been widely discussed as a vaccine
involved in autism-related problems. Our studies did not find MMR
vaccines (no thimerosal added) to be nearly as neurotoxic as
thimerosal-containing vaccines. So how does this fit into the
observations of measles virus in the intestines of a large
percentage of autistic children?

My
theory, and it is only a theory at this time, is based on the fact
that thimerosal is an inhibitor of the brain protein tubulin. One
of the jobs of tubulin is to support the axon structure of nerve
axons; exposure to thimerosal, or mercury, destroys this
capability. Tubulin also has another job: it is involved in
formation of the meiotic spindle on which a cell splits in two. In
other words, tubulin is needed for cell division, and cell
division is needed for development of an immune response. Inhibit
tubulin function with thimerosal injections, and you inhibit the
immune response.

I
have been told that the MMR vaccination is often given at the same
time that three thimerosal-containing vaccines are given. Inhibit
the immune response with the thimerosal-containing vaccinations,
and an infant has less ability to respond to the measles virus in
the MMR vaccination that is injected at the same setting. This
might explain the presence of measles virus in about 80 percent of
autistic children.

The
research results we have obtained on the toxicity of thimerosal
are not really surprising. This ethyl mercury-releasing compound
was known to be neurotoxic through the publication of several
research articles, some quite old. Any competent biochemist would
look at the structure of the compound and identify it as a potent
enzyme inhibitor. What is surprising is that the appropriate
animal and laboratory testing was not done on the vaccines
containing thimerosal (and aluminum) before the government
embarked on a mandated vaccine program that exposed infants to the
levels of thimerosal that occurred.

At
this time it appears that exposure to thimerosal is the most
likely suspect in vaccines that may be involved in causing autism
and related disorders. The final verdict will come with observing
the rate of autism now that thimerosal has been removed from the
infant vaccine program. Let us therefore give credit to those who
have worked to remove thimerosal from the vaccines given to
infants and emphasize that continued testing of all vaccines is
imperative to obtain the safest national vaccine policy possible,
including a thimerosal-free flu vaccine for our elderly citizens.

Boyd E. Haley,
PhD, is a professor and chair of the department of chemistry at
the University of Kentucky, Lexington. His research on biochemical
aberrancies in Alzheimer's disease led to his identifying mercury
toxicity as a major exacerbating factor, perhaps even a causal
factor. Haley has testified before numerous government agencies on
the effects of mercury toxicity from dental amalgams and vaccines.

*****************************************

Dec 2003A report by the National Institutes of Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS) (Oct 2003) acknowledged that fluoride has
been observed to have synergistic effects on the toxicity of
aluminum, complexing with the mineral in the water. They acknowledge
that most drinking water is high in fluoride/aluminum complexes,
which enhance neurotoxicity. Other studies have shown that cooking
with fluoridated water leaches the aluminum out of the aluminum
cooking pots, with different amounts being released depending on the
foods being cooked, whereas cooking with non-fluoridated water
resulted in no release of aluminum from the pans. Leaching of up to
600 ppm occurred with prolonged boiling!

***************************

Burning Brain

The Burning Brain, Its Cause and Cure

I did not find "burning
brain" as one of the symptoms of mercury poisoning in any list
when I was looking for symptoms of mercury poisoning. I searched on
the Internet for "symptom-burning brain," and could not
find anything.

It is so frightening to have a "hot spot"
in your brain or to feel that your "brain is on fire." I
lay in my bed at nights before I was diagnosed with mercury toxicity
imagining all the holes that were being caused in my blood brain
barrier by this burning. My neurologist could not tell me why my
brain burned, but thought it was improbable that I had mercury
poisoning. But then he confessed, "he knew little about mercury
poisoning."

After being diagnosed as mercury poisoned
and being introduced to the ACAM neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter, I
found an article written by Dr. Perlmutter that explained why my
brain burned. He was addressing a conference of ACAM doctors and
called my symptoms "a brain on fire."

In "The
Role of Inflammation in Chronic Diseases" Dr. Perlmutter
explained that when a combination of toxins are in the brain (in my
case aluminum, mercury and thallium) there is a synergistic effect on
the damage they cause.

Synergism-interaction
of agents (as drugs), or conditions such that the total effect is
greater than the sum of the individual effects.

I
have come into contact with several mercury- poisoned people now, who
are saying that their brains burned. Do not rule out mercury
poisoning just because your brain does not burn. People with
mercury poisoning experience varying symptoms.

I have recently
had a conversation with a friend in Roanoke who says he has a "hot
spot" on top of his head. He chain smokes cigarettes so he is
exposed to the heavy metal cadmium in the cigarettes. Smoking
cigarettes increase the damage caused by mercury in your mouth
because of the heat on the fillings. Any heat in the mouth causes the
mercury to leak from the fillings and it takes an hour or two for the
mercury vapors from the fillings to calm down.

My friend also
has a mouth full of mercury fillings and root canals that probably
contain mercury. Then he exposed himself to lead poisoning by sanding
down doors with old lead paint without wearing a mask. He has also
been exposed to paint fumes from painting cars. Now he has lost his
hair and what hair remains has turned white overnight. He needs to
have a heavy metals test run by an ACAM doctor and start removing the
metal safely from his mouth. Then he needs to detox the poisons out
of his body. If he doesn't he could end up with a neurological
disease.

In September of 2003, I had a conversation with
another friend, Troy, and I explained to him how I had been poisoned.
He said, "Well, Marie, that explains some of the things that
have happened to me when I went to dentists." He went on to
explain that probably around seven years ago he had a dentist in
Bland, VA to drill out two fillings. That is when the burning in his
brain first started. He also had a headache that would not go away,
not even with pain relievers. The burning gradually subsided, but it
would come back when he would drink diet drinks that contained the
sugar substitute aspartame. So he learned to avoid aspartame. He said
that was when he first started experiencing memory loss.Later my
friend moved to Amelia, VA and he had several more mercury fillings
drilled out. He did not put together the connection between his
dental work and the burning in the brain. He just saw a connection
with the aspartame exacerbating his symptoms. After this new dental
work where he was exposed to more mercury vapor, his brain burned
again, the headaches reappeared and the memory loss was worse. Now
his wife is complaining about his memory loss.

When I read the
book Beating Alzheimer's by Tom Warren, I was very interested
that he said when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's that his brain
burned.

After speaking with my local ACAM doctor, I now
understand that toxins in the brain cause free radical damage. So one
must remove the toxins and in the process of removing the toxins this
will help remove the inflammation and the burning that is associated
with neurological diseases. EDTA chelation removes some heavy metal
toxins; DMSA removes others such as mercury. Taking antioxidants such
as Vitamin C helps to lesson the symptoms caused by free radical
damage. Persons that are mercury poisoned frequently take 5000 to
6000 mg of Vitamin C a day. However, you need to work with your
doctor to get on a balanced program of vitamins and minerals.

I
would recommend that you buy the book BrainRecovery.Com, Powerful
Therapy for Challenging Brain Disorders by Dr. David Perlmutter
if you have a neurological disease. He is a board certified
neurologist from Florida that belongs to ACAM. On the Amazon.com
website Bernie Siegel, M.D. says of Dr. Perlmutter's book:

"...Should
be available to everyone so true integrative therapy can become the
normal method of treatment in the neurology field."

Though
Dr. Permutter is an ACAM doctor and these doctors are known as
chelation doctor, he does not stress testing for heavy metals in this
book. He makes no mention of removing mercury fillings.Mercury
and other heavy metals are the major contributor to neurological
diseases. You will find this on Dr. Mercola's website and also the
neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Blaylock said the same thing on Pat
Robertson's 700 Club. Also exposure to chemicals, pesticides and
industrial poisons contribute to neurological diseases. But if you
have a neurotoxin right in your mouth just inches from your brain,
you must remove the mercury from your mouth. Also remove toxic metal
crowns and toxic root canals. A biological dentist, along with the
materials you receive from DAMS can advise you on what is toxic.

I
would use Dr. Perlmutter's book as an introduction to some
alternative therapies for neurological diseases. He warns that the
medication Parkinson's patients receive from their doctors will
actually cause the symptoms to get worse in the long run. If you have
a neurological disease find an ACAM doctor in your area that is
experienced in heavy metal toxicity. Some ACAM doctors are also
neurologists and some specialize in degenerative diseases. When you
go to the ACAM site online you will see the specialties of each
doctor listed beside his name. Be sure to see what the code for the
specialties are at the end of the list. (example NT=nutrition)

So
my recommendations to you is this:

1. Order an information
packet from DAMS concerning mercury toxicity from toxic dentistry.
Get the name of a DAMS coordinator in your state that you can talk
to.

2. Find a local ACAM doctor experienced in treating toxic
patients. He will give you a heavy metals test. Mercury may not show
up as high on a test, but if you have mercury in your mouth and you
have a neurological disease, you will still need to remove mercury
fillings and detox your body. It is hard to test for mercury as it
likes to hide in the brain and not come out for a heavy metals'
test.

Some ACAM doctors may say that your score for mercury is
not high enough to detox your body of mercury. I disagree with this.
King James Medical Laboratory states that there is no safe level of
mercury in the body, and Dr. Boyd Haley, leading researcher of
mercury in the USA, is testifying before Congressional hearings on
mercury dental fillings that there is no safe level of mercury in the
body. And if you have other heavy metals in your body, the small
amount of mercury will be intensified in your body. I say don't leave
any mercury in your body. Get it all out! And please don't just
settle for your doctor saying to you, "Your test results were
low, and are not problem." Get copies of the test results
yourself and put them in your own files. You have a right to remove
all heavy metals from your body. Your doctor might not be aware to
the latest research on heavy metals. Dr. Boyd Haley is saying that
some of the most poisoned people may actually have low levels of
mercury in their heavy metals testing scores because they are poor
excreters of mercury. See the footnote on Marie's Story of Mercury
Poisoning for an explanation of this.

3. Find a biological
dentist to safely remove toxic fillings, crowns, and root canals from
your mouth. Talk to your state DAMS coordinator before you choose
your biological dentist. Make sure the biological dentist will
properly protect you from mercury vapor.4. Order Dr. Perlmutter's
book as a book you can use in conjunction to the advice and treatment
you will receive from your local ACAM doctor. Do not order the
neurological supplements from Dr. Perlmutter until AFTER you see what
your local ACAM doctor wants to prescribe for you. Then you can
discuss with your local ACAM doctor what Dr. Perlmutter recommends
and together decide if you need to take additional supplements that
Dr. Perlmutter recommends for the brain.

5. Do not use Dr.
Perlmutter's book and become your own doctor. You need an alternative
doctor to help you with supplements and treatments. Do not go to Wal
Mart and buy vitamins that Dr. Perlmutter recommends. You need an
alternative doctor to help you figure out which supplements are
appropriate for you. If you buy them yourself you will just end up
with a bag full of bottles and you may not even buy the correct form
of the supplement that is the most effective. Also your ACAM doctor
may have several of the things Dr. Perlmutter recommends in
combination in one pill. If you try to buy these yourself, you may
end up with 20 bottles of pills.

It is so sad that when a
person has a neurological disease conventional medicine will not even
check for heavy metals in the brain! Conventional doctors just
diagnose a patient with a "label" whether it is
Alzheimer's, ALS, MS, or Parkinson's. Autism in children is also
known by some doctors to have been caused by exposure to toxins such
as aluminum and mercury through vaccines. Conventional doctors, not
even neurologists, even check the brain to remove heavy metals!
Improvements in these neurological conditions are increased by early
detection of the heavy metals and the removal of these metals from
the brain and the teeth. (DAN doctors may help remove metals from
autistic children.)

If you need an alternative doctor to help
a child with autism, there is a doctor in Richmond, VA listed on the
www.acam.org site. (I do not personally know this doctor, but it
would be a starting place for Virginians who want help.) Just go to
the American College for the Advancement in Medicine site
(www.acam.org) and click on VA. If the traditional doctors won't even
admit that the heavy metal ingredients in vaccines are causing
autism, how can you expect a traditional doctor to help your child
detox from the heavy metals in vaccines? How can these major teaching
hospitals help you if they won't test properly for heavy metals and
know how to remove them? Mainstream doctors are not chelation
doctors. If you have a illness related to heavy metals, you need a
chelation doctor. Chelation doctors have been removing metals for
years.

Doctors belonging to the American College for the
Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) are located at
www.acam.org.****************

Statistically there is a higher incidence of hip fracture in
residents of fluoridated areas. This includes U.S. studies published
in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) by Dr. S.J.
Jacobsen in 1990 and Christa Danielson and others in 1992.

A study of 23,000 elementary
schoolchildren in Tucson, Arizona, by Dr. Cornelius Steelink in 1992,
showed increased caries (dental cavities) with increased levels of
fluoride in drinking water

Professor S.P.S. Teotia of India
who reported on a study of 400,000 children from 1973 to 1993 also
showed increased caries (dental cavities) with increased levels of
fluoride in drinking water.

"In 1999, the US Environmental
Protection Agency finally reviewed three studies carried out by
scientists at Binghamton University. The scientists reported 80%
death rates,kidney
damage and brain damage in rats exposed to half of one milligram of
aluminum fluoride complexes in a litre of drinking water. This is
less than half of the amount of fluoride which is added in
fluoridation schemes.

Finally,
the National Toxicology Program was asked to commission studies to
determine the extent of neurotoxic damage from aluminum in drinking
water, particularly stressing the fluoride interaction."

Last
October, a Report by the National Institutes of Environmental Heath
Sciences (NIEHS) acknowledged that fluoride
has been observed to have synergistic effects on the toxicity of
aluminum

"I
was particularly pleased when the US Environmental Protection Agency
report by Urbansky and Schock on the toxicity of lead and fluoride in
drinking water confirmed that fluoride complexes with other
substances in the water.

They
also acknowledged that most drinking water contains a substantial
amount of fluoro-aluminium complexes. This should be a warning to
dentists who hold with the simplistic notion that fluoride only
affects teeth and is perfectly safe in drinking water."

According
to the NIEHS Report, most water treatment processes result in
increased
levels of aluminum in the finished drinking water.

It
stated that fluoridation will result in aluminum fluoride complexes
which will enhance neurotoxicity, or that fluoride itself will
enhance uptake and synergise the toxicity of the aluminum

Other
studies have shown that in the presence of fluoride, aluminum
leaches out of cookware.Boiling
fluoridated tap water in an aluminum pan leached almost 200
parts per million(ppm)
of aluminum into the water in 10 minutes.

Leaching
of up to 600 PPM occurred with prolonged boiling. Different releases
of aluminum depend upon the composition of the pan and the type of
food being cooked. Using non-fluoridated water showed almost no
leaching from aluminum pans.

Elizabeth
O'Brien Manager, Global Lead Advice and Support Service
(GLASS), run by The LEAD Group Inc

ph
+61 2 9716 0014

fax
+ 61 2 9716 9005

PO
Box 161 Summer Hill NSW 2130 Australia

www.lead.org.au

FULL
CITATION

Are
Amalgam Fillings Safe for Lead-poisoned People?

LEAD
Action News vol 5 no 2 1997 ISSN 1324-6011

The
journal of The LEAD (Lead Education and Abatement Design) Group Inc.

[Source:www.lead.org.au/lanv5n2/lanv5n2-4.html]

By
Elizabeth O'Brien, Project Coordinator, NSW Community Lead
Advisory Service (CLAS).

Alarming
information about the synergistic effects of lead and mercury,
recently brought to the attention of CLAS by ASOMAT members, will be
the basis of an enquiry by CLAS to the NSW and Federal Health
Ministers.

ASOMAT
is the Australasian Society of Oral Medicine and Toxicology (ph 02
9867 1111), a non-profit organisation founded by concerned doctors
and dentists.

Amalgam fillings contain 50% mercury.

>
The original evidence cited for the synergistic effects of lead and
mercury (and cadmium) comes from a 1978 paper by Schubert et al
published in Michigan: "...the administration of an
essentially no-response level (LD1) of a mercury salt together
with 1/20 of the LD1 of a lead salt killed all of the animals
[rats]."

Dr
Michael Godfrey and dentist Noel Campbell write:

"...a
lethal dose (LD1 [enough to kill 1% of the rats]) was combined with
a 1/20th LD1 of lead, resulting in a LD 100 [100% death rate]
in the test animals. "We have recently found that
considerable amounts of lead may be excreted with the mercury
following DMPS provocation. Our preliminary investigations
appear to indicate that a synergistic effect could be identified by
multiplying the lead and mercury concentrations together, after
adjusting to IG of urine creatinine. We have termed this the
Campbell-Godfrey factor (C-G factor). Chronic-ally affected
patients may have high levels of either metal or a high total
C-G factor. Those with the highest C-G factor appear to be the
worst affected, thus indicating that the synergism in animals is
replicated in man."

>

>
The questions raised are: is it safe for lead poisoned people to
have mercury fillings? Should CLAS advise parents of
lead-poisoned kids never to allow these fillings in their kid's
mouths? Should CLAS advise lead-poisoned people who are
planning to conceive for instance, to have their amalgam
fillings replaced, along with DMSA chelation therapy and nutrient
replenishment therapy, well in advance of trying to conceive? Is it
acceptable for anyone to be exposed to lead and mercury (and cadmium)
as they are in mining and smelting communities? Why aren't the
DMPS provocation test, DMSA chelation therapy or amalgam
removal procedures claimable under Medicare? When will
Australia phase out amalgams?

Another group of doctors who may understand heavy metals are
environmental doctors belonging to the American Academy of
Environmental Medicine.